Monday, April 18, 2011

Haiji White Bun Using Pullman Tin

When I went back to Malaysia in 2008, a Pullman pan was on my to-buy-list. I was fascinated and wanted to get one to play with it. I was in luck as I easily found this pan in the bakery supply shop, it came in three sizes, short, medium and long. The one I bought was the shortest one, 4" x 4" x 8.5". You can see the picture of my Pullman pan in the following page. While searching for Pullman pan recipe, I came across that this pan was also called Pain de Mie. Pain de Mie is a fine-textured, moist bread baked in a special lidded pan. The lid gives this bread a flat top and perfectly square-edges slices.

While blog hopping one day, I came across a Haiji White Bun recipe. This recipe really caught my attention because the blogger said it was super soft and delicious. I browsed the ingredients and noticed that it didn't have bread improver or bread softener that I was trying to avoid using. So, immediately I bookmarked it with the intention of trying it out. And of course finally gotten to use the Pullman pan that I bought three years ago. :-)

Verdict: Super soft and super yummy! I am so glad I tried this recipe as I will be making it again and again. I highly recommend anyone to give this recipe a try.

Recipe adapted from CosyBake. But I was using a bread maker and a Pullman tin (Pain de Mie). If you don't have a bread maker, you can refer to her link for the traditional method or use a loaf pan.

Ingredients:

250g bread flour

3g instant yeast

200g milk

10g sugar

3g salt

10g butter (I used 1 Tbsp.)

Method:

1. In a bread-maker, add the following in order. First add milk, butter, sugar, flour, salt and lastly make an indentation to one side of the flour and add yeast. Turn the bread-maker to dough function and let it does it work.

2. After the dough is done. Take it out, cut it into three portion. Punch the air out and roll each into a cylinder shape that would fit the Pullman tin (4"x 4"x 8.5").

3. Spray the Pullman tin with baking spray with flour and place the dough in. Cover the tin 2/3 with the lid, so that you can see the progress of the proving.

4. Let it rest until it rise until the picture below, 1 inch before reaches the top (50-60 minutes). You can use the normal loaf pan if you don't have a Pullman tin. Preheat the oven the 350'F.

5. Spray the lid of the tin with baking spray with flour and cover it like picture below.

6. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes. Then, open the lid and bake for 5-8 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

7. When it's done, take it out and turn the bread out to cool on a wire rack. Top side up. Brush the top with melted honey. And let it cool completely.

8. Wrap it with cling wrap and place in an air-tight container at room temperature. Serve with your favorite jam.

hi there, wow, can see the slice is so so fluffy and soft! I hope more and more bloggers will learn to like this bread. For my all the bread I make, i will not use any bread improver or softener. Or else i would have just bought off the shelves! haha... really glad you tried this bread out. cheers!!!!

Yes j3ss. Did you over proof your bread? You have to keep watch and not let your bread proof more than 1 inch from the top of the pan. Then close the lid and straight in the oven to bake.

Thanks for stopping by Honey boy and thanks for sharing your recipe with us. :)

Thanks hanushi.

Thanks Jen. I'm sure your pain de mie will look great.

Anon, you can bake it in the normal bread pan, loaf pan, shape into balls and bake as buns, or did all in a bread maker (I tried this, still soft but not as soft as the one finished in the bread maker had crust).

Your bread look fantastic. I shall be trying my hand at baking a loaf for the family this weekend. Just a question : why is there a need to cut the dough into 3, shape into logs to place into the baking tin. Could i just shape the dough into 1 huge roll? will there be any difference to the rising, or to the texture of the baked bread? Please advise. Thanks

Hmmm fifiyo, I never thought about this as I just did it like everyone else. :P Since you asked, I gave it a thought and I think it does make a difference in the rising, see...if you shape it into a huge roll, then the corner ends of the roll will rise lower than the middle part (doom shape), where as if you separate into three rolls, then all part of the roll will rise almost evenly, with three dooms instead of one. Got it? :) Oh yes, do make this recipe, really soft and yummy. I will make another version today.

Sorry Anon, I don't think there is a substitute for bread flour. You need bread flour/high protein flour to make bread. I was surprised that there was not much choices of bread flour in my supermarkets too, but luckily at least there was one brand there for me to buy.

hi there,thanks i finally got the bread flour in my area..not easy to find though.btw what brand breadmaker you are using.Any particular brand for I thought of getting one.Can't wait to bake this yummy simple recipe.:D

Hi,I made your recipe for Haiji bread twice and it s really nice..but I like to know why is the loaf turns out smaller than the picture and even though it did proof,the size not reach anywhere an inch from the top and it took more than 60 minutes.I used dry yeast is it correct?thanks:))

Actually most bakers would just use all purpose flour for a softer bread such a pain de mie. I would use APF. But when a recipe does need and call for bread flour Vital Wheat Gluten can be used to up the protein content of APF. Still for the SOFTEST bread without using softeners (milk powder or potato are safe natural softeners) use APF.